How To Maximize the Value of Your Online And In-Person Events?

After the pandemic, getting attendees for both online events as well as offline events has become challenging. The COVID-19 epidemic is interrupting calendars, travel budgets, and marketing strategies throughout the world by postponing activities. In response, several companies have moved their events online. The possibility that the event one holds may become lost in an ocean of alternatives increases as more events are created. Additionally, it is considerably simpler for individuals to “attend” an event while ignoring it or leaving early. Numerous studies have shown that online users have an attention span that is shorter than the ones who attend an event offline.

Ways to maximise the value of online and in-person events

1. Marketing Objectives

Whether you are organizing a luncheon for twelve or a webinar with 500 participants, you must begin with a clear idea of what you hope to achieve in the end. Goals for event marketing include, for instance:

● Create qualified leads: This is a frequent goal for seminars and professional exhibitions, where registration information can offer valuable clues about attendees’ propensity to make purchases.
● Determine important decision-makers: Small-scale, in-person events can help you establish a connection with C-level executives, who are sometimes difficult to get in touch with.
● Increase brand recognition or thought leadership: These “soft” event marketing objectives are frequently highly helpful. It can be difficult to calculate the return on investment from events.

2. Distribution of invitations

The type of event, the duration, and the intended audience for the online events as well as offline ones would all affect how one chooses invitations. Use social media, internet advertising, email marketing, and maybe even direct mail to deliver invites automatically to your prospect database. Do this if your goal is to produce new leads.

Use a system that enables your company to monitor the precise timing and method of invitation distribution; otherwise, you run the danger of inundating potential attendees with redundant invites and contradicting information. For instance, you should plan the launch of an email marketing campaign with registration or speaker details to occur before you begin a “save the date” social media campaign.

3. Early Bird Gets the Worm

Have early bird and standard cost options, at a minimum for online events for sure. To entice customers to purchase before prices rise, provide more than one form of early bird pricing. People will buy more quickly as a result of this sense of urgency.

On your event website, think about using a table plugin to structure early bird pricing. In order to encourage consumers to sign up, emphasize the key distinction between the early bird and ordinary ticket. Make sure to include a deadline as well.

4. Advertise the Venue

For the time being, in-person activities are suspended, but they will resume soon. When organizing a physical conference, keep in mind that the venue makes for excellent marketing content.

People who are interested in the conferences want to know more than just about the event itself; they also want to know more about the location of the conference. Since it’s difficult to answer no to a conference in a hip, lovely city, the venue of conferences tends to be one of the main draws for potential participants.

Promote nearby sites that could be of interest to conference participants. Even more of a draw for folks to come to your conference if you can secure discounted pricing for several of those attractions!

5. Use LinkedIn

A fantastic approach to connect with professionals in a particular sector who could be intrigued by the event is through LinkedIn. Utilize the opportunity to advertise your event on a social platform created for networking. This is why people attend events, to thousands of individuals who are relevant to the sector.

Participants can ask questions and connect with one another by creating an event page on LinkedIn. You can occasionally post about this wonderful event you’re throwing on groups linked to your industry. Consider giving network individuals who share the post discounts if one wants the efforts to really pay off.

6. Paid Ads

Utilizing sponsored social media advertising alternatives is another approach to reaching individuals in the sector. Promote the sector with targeted advertising that contain links to the signup page. Setting up paid ads is pretty much a DIY live streaming platform.

These ads are pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements, so one would only be paid when people click on them. Therefore, it is cost-effective, and one can also simply check critical performance indicators like sign-ups. One would need a special destination page with a registration form for the conference and interesting material to put up an advertisement.

7. Fun Things

One can promote enjoyable activities like social gatherings. Although promoting the gatherings and some of the evening events is obviously helpful, the major purpose for people attending conferences is for the informative material.

One can organize online events and happy hours where beverages are allowed for online gatherings. Other suggestions include organizing health workshops, Jeopardy games, and trivia contests to let guests unwind in between lectures.

8. Online Community

Networking is one of the reasons people attend events. Because participants are communicating with screens rather than one another in person, virtual events may appear to be an exception to this rule. One reintegrates this crucial component into the event by building an online community.

One can also use the most economical event hosting platform, like Mixhubb, for connecting with your guests. Furthermore, it makes it simple for participants to invite other businesspeople in their network, which raises awareness and boosts enrollment.

Conclusion

And thus, in the given ways one can increase the reach of both online events as well as offline events. However, these aren’t the only things that can be done. One can also boast a lot, which would be a final piece of advice. Praise the presenters, the sessions, and the incredible resources the guests would have as a result of the event. At the end of the day, people do invest in a ticket. And it is the job of the organizer to make the people feel confident in the fact that their investment will be worthwhile.